Sudsy spectacle

Candace Havens, Zap2itCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Vampires, ghosts, slayers and superheroes aren't necessarily things one would expect to see on a daytime serial, but then ABC's "Port Charles" is no ordinary soap. By pushing the boundaries of what viewers can expect, it's giving them a whole new way of looking at the genre.

"PC" is edgy, unpredictable and extreme. Every 13 weeks, viewers see a beginning, middle and end to a story arc, which seldom happens on a traditional daytime program. It's fast-paced and never boring.

But is it what daytime viewers want to see?

Brian Frons, president of ABC Daytime, believes it is. When he joined the network four months ago, one of the first things he found on his desk was research telling him how much fans loved the show.

"We had asked 1,500 women across the country if they liked the show, and they came back and said they loved it," Frons says. "It was the best reaction we had ever received for the show, and they were passionate about the stories with the vampires and the novella-type storytelling."

Unfortunately, the show airs before 11 a.m. in much of the country, and it often dwells at the bottom of the ratings. Frons hopes that will change starting Monday, when "PC" will air a special hourlong episode following "All My Children." Frons sees it as a way to get more people to watch the show, and he hopes they come back for more, no matter when it airs.

"The writers at 'PC' have come up with an incredible story to tell," Frons says, "and I felt like we needed a better way to start the new book off. I had been in Europe for several years and had launched several novellas. Here, they usually end the (current) book on Friday and start the new one on Monday. But I knew we needed more. The idea was to bring new viewers in, so we decided on the one-hour special after 'AMC.' "

The producers and writers have gone all out for the special, "but it isn't that different from a normal show," says Julie Carruthers, "PC" executive producer. "We did use more special effects because we had more time within the hour to do so. We also wanted to make it as realistic as possible. For the most part, it is indicative of what you will see if you tune in to see an episode of 'PC.' We take our production values seriously. We realize that a lot of people aren't available at the time of morning 'PC' normally airs, so we want them to have a chance to see what we are all about."

The new 13-week book, "Surrender," debuts during the special, and it centers on the vampire and slayer characters. "Of course, the main focus is forbidden love and romantic challenges," Carruthers says. There are a lot of supernatural elements to the show, and the last book, "Naked Eyes," helped to re-establish the vampires in Port Charles. "Surrender" will show how the vampires have infiltrated the city by feeding on the human emotion they crave. "At the same time, the slayers will be trying protect the people in the city and their loved ones," Carruthers says.

Sort of sounds like an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." "Good," Frons says. "We call 'PC' the 'Buffy' of daytime. People who are tuning in love the extreme nature of the show. We are looking at stories that you probably wouldn't have seen on a soap 20 years ago.

"We have a talented young cast with actors like Kelly Monaco, Brian Gaskill, Erin Hershey and Brian Presley, and that's something else that defines us from everything else that is out there."